My friend Bob…one step closer to ink on paper

What follows is the most recent column my friend Bob Sacks wrote in Publishing Executive magazine. I decided to run the entire article with just one comment: my friend Bob is moving one step closer to ink on paper away from its imitation the e-paper thing. Bob does not even once refer to e-paper in this article and pushes his predictions to 2025 rather his usual “five years from now.” Judge for yourself after you read his column.

http://www.pubexec.com/story/story.bsp?sid=107630&var=story
Publishing Executive
BoSacks: Looking at the Future of New Launches

Will the increasing costs of entry make print publishing a world where only the brave and truly committed dare to go?
As you may know, my friend Samir Husni, also known as Mr. Magazine, tracks new magazine launches. He has done so for decades and has amassed a wealth of data. In his latest announcement, the overall numbers for our business are less than stellar. Many possible reasons exist for this decline. Both Husni and I can postulate about its causes, but neither of us actually knows.

According to Husni: “The number of new magazine launches in the first quarter of 2008 (150) increased by five titles compared to Q1 2007. [While it was an increase,] it is still a far cry from the introduction of 192 new magazines in the same time period in 2006. However … only 41 magazines were launched with the intention to be published at least four times a year compared with 50 in 2007, and 72 in 2006.”

Husni goes on to ask:

“So what does this mixed bag of numbers mean? Not much. Since I have started tracking new magazine launches, I have witnessed a two or three years’ decline after a very healthy and busy year. [2005] was a very healthy year—1,013 new magazines were launched. The decline started in 2006. We are in our third year of decline. In 2006, we [saw] 901 new launches. The number dropped to 715 last year, and if the trend of the previous years continues, we will see another drop again this year before the numbers bounce back. Call it market correction if you please, but definitely it is not a sign that print is on its way out.”

Well, on that last point, Mr. Magazine and I agree. Printed magazines are not on their way out. Not by a long shot. I believe that the printed magazine will have a prosperous run until the advent and adaptation of new technologies, which will finally surpass the printed magazine around 2025. So there is some breathing room left. And even in 2025, magazines will not be completely gone, and those publishers established to produce them will do just fine. But I do believe that by 2025, the printed magazine will not be the predominant way that the public will read, but rather only one of the ways. Sort of like it is now, only more so.

So what will happen to Husni’s belief that there will be a predictable parabolic curve of highs and lows of new title releases? I think there will always be some high points of new releases and some low points. But as we move into the future there will be periods of lower highs and lower lows. And the long-term trend will be a decreased number of new printed titles, until we reach a new level of sustainability. That new sustainability will be predicated on the dictates of the new information age, balanced with the cost structure of print-and-ship manufactured goods. This may not be a bad thing for the printing and publishing industry. Perhaps a more expensive entry fee to be a printed publisher will lead to a greater survival rate, as only the brave and the truly committed will apply.

I believe we will reach a new successful, sustainable plateau of new releases more in line with the new business realities of the day. The further the reach of a new digital infrastructure, the less drive there will be to spend money on printed products. Publishing has always had a component of vanity attached to it. Almost everybody wants to be a publisher. In the past, the only way to do that was to put ink on paper. It was significantly less costly than it is today to materialize those vanity impulses.

I think we will find that the new world order is based on dematerialization. The dematerialization business plan can send billions of words anywhere on the planet in an instant with no material form and no manufacturing expenditure.

So, as usual, Mr. Magazine and I agree on some points and disagree on others. For today, we agree that the printed magazine is not going away any time soon, but disagree on the relevance of the decreasing trend in new startups.

Bob Sacks (aka BoSacks) is a printing/publishing industry consultant and president of The Precision Media Group (BoSacks.com). He is also the co-founder of the research company Media-Ideas (Media-Ideas.net), and publisher and editor of a daily international e-newsletter, Heard on the Web. Sacks has held posts as director of manufacturing and distribution, senior sales manager (paper), chief of operations, pressman, circulator and almost every other job this industry has to offer.

Copyright 2008 | North American Publishing Company | All Rights Reserved
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European Diaries (2)… Reading under “the influence of SMS”

When I arrived in my hotel room in Helsinki, Finland, the name of the magazine waiting for me on the coffee table caught my attention immediately. WTF screamed the name, and since I have been around college students a lot (you know, part of my job) I was stunned for a second since I knew what WTF* stands for in the recent climate of SMSing. I grabbed the magazine as fast as my hands can reach to it and looked at that cover, then looked again. In very small type under the name the web address read www.welcometofinland.fi. What a sigh of relief. I opened the pages safely and saw the Welcome to Finland name in big type on the table of contents page. Maybe the WTF was a good attention grabber for me to pick up the magazine, but I truly miss the days when we used to spell everything, the right way, the right style. Anyway, I had a great time in Finland and gave few presentations to the folks at the Finnish Periodical Association and my friends at Sanoma Magazines Finland. Next time I am in Helsinki I will make sure to pick up my welcoming magazine without reading it “under the influence of SMS.”
* For those of you who are not familiar with the SMS language, WTF stands for What the f—?

The Power of Interactive Printed Magazines… A Magazine called “Your Old House”…

First there was JPG, then came Everywhere, and then the mainstream media took notice: there is a good, indeed a very good use, for the internet and the web in generating content for the printed magazines that we do. Before the Web, writing letters to editors and sharing comments was limited to a few who were determined to do so. Now, readers’ opinions are a click away and the minute they read something they like, they hate, or they can’t stand, chances are you are going to hear from them.
That is why the folks at This Old House have decided to bestow the honor of changing the name of the June issue of the magazine to Your Old House, since it was 100% reader created. And the “YOUR” belongs to “You people,” who are “Kooks. Obsessive. Irrational. Possibly out of your minds,” writes Scott Omelianuk, the magazine’s editor. Omelianuk quickly adds, “And we love you for it.”
To me, this is yet another example of the power of print in being an interactive medium. Before the web, Reiman publications set the standards in reader generated content. After the web, the field is now leveled and those editors who are willing to listen to what Time’s managing editor Richard Stengel told my students that the future of journalists is “to be more curators and less creators,” there is a lot of room for printed magazines to thrive and excel.
“The Public Voted” for the June’s issue of This (Your) Old House’s cover image, the winners of the remodeled houses’ contest, and the shared money saving tips on home improvements.

The future (from Sweden) in few sound-bites

Martin Schori of the Swedish media related newspaper Dagens Media interviewed me in Stockholm yesterday during my first leg of my European trip. The questions evolved around the future of print, the need of the internet, and other media related issues. To view the entire interview click here.

The glossy weekly named TIME…

In a continuation of transforming the magazine to a weekly of the 21st century (a monthly glossy on a weekly basis), TIME magazine sports five different covers this week to celebrate the fifth anniversary of its The TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World. The magazine asked “several top graphic designers to create bonus covers to mark the fifth anniversary of this issue.” The designers include Chip Kidd, Neville Brody, James Victore and Michael Lee. And if you think the covers are great, think twice about the writing and photography. To quote Richard Stengel, TIME’s managing editor “What does it take to produce 100 profiles by 100 writers, plus great photography and five different covers? A whole world of talent.” Yes, indeed.

Split covers and different stars reach Hip Hop Weekly world…

The two-year old Hip Hop Weekly was published without any fanfare, but since it changed its format from a tabloid to a standard size glossy magazine Hip Hop Weekly started gaining space on the newsstands and I have selected it as one of min’s magazines hottest launches of last year. Now, the magazine that covers the hip hop culture on a weekly basis is learning the tricks of the trade and offering split covers on the nation’s stands. The latest issue comes with two covers, one devoted to Jay Z and the other to 50 Cent….In any case, both covers are a reflection of a culture that is gaining ground in a world surrounded by celebrity news and gossip…Britney, Jen, Paris and the rest of the gang better watch out, Hip Hop Weekly’s covers are off limit to you…but the rest of the Hip Hop stars can now have a magazine they can call their own. Check it out if you are interested in keeping up with the hip hop culture…you will not regret it and you may learn a thing or two…

TIME for the 21st Century… Richard Stengel’s Stuart Bullion Memorial Lecture at Ole Miss

TIME’s managing editor Richard Stengel delivered one of the most thought-provoking, eye-opening lectures to an overflowing lecture hall, with standing-room only audience, at the department of journalism at The University of Mississippi. The entire April 21st lecture can be watched here. I know it is more than an hour-long with questions and answers at the end, but I promise you, you want to watch the entire speech. If you are looking for answers to the many questions regarding the future of journalism and the weeklies, Stengel gives you answers. Richard Stengel changed the covers of TIME magazine from questions to answers with an assertive point of view. It you want answers to your questions, then give yourself an hour and sit down, relax and watch Richard Stengel answer the questions that each and everyone of us are asking: What the future of journalism? Click here to watch the entire speech.
Would love to hear your comments on Richard Stengel’s lecture.

Stop Using the Term Convergence and other Good Advice from ESPN’s Wright Thompson

Students at The University of Mississippi’s department of Journalism received a dose of good advice from Wright Thompson in the third day of Journalism Week. Thompson offered the following advice to the students, which I believe, apply to anyone interested in the profession of journalism today and wants to know where journalism for the 21st century is heading…Here are some of the highlights from his talk:

1. There is no difference in working for a web-site or in working for a newspaper. What people did at the newspaper in the 60s they are still doing now but on the web-site.
2. Stop using the term convergence. It is more of an advertising term or business term and not journalism. Convergence has nothing to do with what we should be doing as journalists and writers.
3. The same fundamental stuff in journalism has not changed. Ask smart questions and find interesting people to ask the questions to.
4. Learn how to write, learn how to report…everything else will be OK.
5. Don’t immerse yourself with the doom and gloom of the industry. Even during the depression there were people who were still traveling and spending time in Europe and other places. The industry is still hiring good folks.
6. Remember the art of storytelling. Learn the skills and try to be a story teller. Every story must have a character, a plot, an outline from the very beginning.
7. The best stories are about Hope and Fear.
8. The 24-hour cable news is nothing but a video blog.
9. In ESPN we do journalism first and then we figure which is the best platform.
10. The internet has created more accountability and more integrity. You can’t get away with things today like you used to be able to do 20 or 30 years ago.

The entire talk of Wright Thompson will soon be uploaded on the department of journalism MCast video service soon. To check all other talks and presentations on MCast please click here.

Richard Stengel on Reinventing TIME

“Curate more and create less,” is the new mantra for the 21st century journalist, Richard Stengel TIME’s managing editor told a standing room only crowd as he delivered the keynote address for the Third Annual Memorial Stuart Bullion Lecture in Journalism at The University of Mississippi. In a speech entitled “Reinventing Time” Stengel told students, faculty and the public attending the lecture, that journalists must focus more on the WHY rather than the WHAT and WHEN. Journalists must be moderators of information utilizing all the new technological tools and must not be afraid of voicing their opinion when they are the experts and authority on the subject matter at hand. He went on to say, if someone else is a better authority on a specific subject matter, you should not be afraid of sending them to that someone else.
Click here for preview from the Qs and As with Richard Stengel after his lecture. I will be posting his entire lecture and the Qs and As on the Department of Journalism website and on the Mr. Magazine website this coming Thursday.
I truly believe what Richard Stengel is doing at TIME and TIME.Com today is indeed building on the DNA that Henry Luce and Briton Hadden founded in 1923. Theirs was TIME for the 20th Century, Richard Stengel’s is TIME for the 21st Century. His energetic speech today was the talk of the students and faculty after he left. “Powerful, visionary and on the mark,” are but a few comments I have heard from students and faculty after the speech. He has his fingers right on the pulse of our industry and those with ears to listen better do so. I agree wholeheartedly and I can’t wait for my tech folks to finish the video processing in order to share the entire lecture and the questions and answers with y’all so you can judge for yourself.
How do I see the future of journalism, well, I have to agree with Richard Stengel, “the cup is indeed half full.” Let us work on filling it up!
For more videos from this and previous Ole Miss Department of Journalism events subscribe to our podcast at mcast.blip.tv
To read the report from The Daily Mississippian about Stengel’s visit please click here.

TIME in RED, BLACK and GREEN

This week, and for the second time in its 85-year history, TIME magazine leaves the red border behind in favor of the green border to celebrate Earth Day and the war on global warming. The only other time TIME left the red border behind was when it issued a special edition after Sept. 11, 2001. TIME took a page from its departed sister LIFE which did the same during its long history with the white LIFE in a red box. LIFE changed the red color twice in its lifetime: the issue after the assassination of president John F. Kennedy (Nov. 29, 1963) when black replaced red, and on Earth Day (May 1990) when green replaced red.

When a color is your trademark, you tend not to mess with it. However, Richard Stengel, TIME’s managing editor writes in this week’s issue,

“This is our third annual special issue on the environment but also a historic first: for this one issue, we’ve exchanged our trademarked Red Border for a green one. By doing so, we are sending a clear — and colorful — message to our readers about the importance of this subject, not just to Americans but to everyone else around the world as well.”

By the way, TIME managing editor will deliver the third annual Stuart Bullion Memorial Lecture at the campus of The University of Mississippi on Monday April 21 at 9:00 a.m. His topic: Reinventing TIME. Click here for more details.